Investing in Japan
Regional Information
Okayama
Land in sunshine
- Your Regional Guide: Tomonori Numoto
Inquiry form
Industrial Location and Distribution Promotion Division
2-4-6 Uchisange, Okayama-city, Okayama Prefecture 700-8570
TEL: +81-86-226-7389 FAX: +81-86-225-3449
- Basic Information
- Regional Profile
- Services for investment in Japan
- Available incentives
- Living environment for foreigners
- Links to Related Websites
Basic Information
| Population | 1.96 million (2005) |
|---|---|
| Labor force | 0.99 million (2005) |
| Area | 7,010km² (2005) |
| GDP | 7,311 billion yen (2005) |
| Major industries | Petroleum/coal products, transport equipment/appliance, chemical, steel and general machinery/tool |
| Developing industries | Ultra precise production technology, biotechnology, medical/healthcare/welfare and environment |
| Offices overseas | Shanghai, China |
| Offices in Japan | Tokyo/Osaka |
| JETRO office | JETRO Okayama |
Regional Profile
Strength of the region's industries and economy
<High-performance center of industries, particularly manufacturing>
Okayama Prefecture boasts of the Mizushima Industrial District in Kurashiki City, where many large-scale companies with leading-edge technologies representing Japan in the petroleum, chemical, steel, and automobile industries have their production facilities. It has also developed nationally known local industries with advanced technologies and original products such as textile, refractory, and machinery/metal industries.
Strength of the region's education/research institutes
<Good educational environment>
The Prefecture has a long history of excellent education. It is in fifth place in Japan in terms of the number of universities and junior colleges per 100,000 residents. A distinctive feature is that they have more science and engineering faculties than other prefectures
Industry-government-academia collaboration
"Creating industrial clusters – Okayama Government-Industry-Academia Collaboration Promotion Committee"
The prefecture aims to create industrial clusters through industry-academia-government collaboration in such production fields as ultra precise production technology, biotechnology, medical /welfare/healthcare, and the environment.
- Micro Manufacturing Okayama (ultra precise production technology)
- Medical Techno Okayama (medical)
- Heartful Business Okayama (welfare)
- Okayama Food Industry Cluster (biotechnology)/Okayama Bioactive Research Society· Okayama Biomass Plastic Society (biotechnology)
- Okayama Wood Biomass Society (biotechnology)
- Recyclable Resource Utilization Promotion Society (environment)
As an advanced prefecture for manufacturing, the prefecture established the Okayama Government-Industry-Academia Collaboration Promotion Committee and tackles concrete collaborative projects among government, industry and academia to make the most of its competitive edge such as accumulated production technologies and Japan’s top-ranking density of universities.
- Nurturing coordinators, etc.
- Enhancement and popularization of the internship system
- Promoting Management-of-Technology (MOT) education
- Caravan to visit 100 companies
- Visiting 100 laboratories
Strength of the region's infrastructure
<A hub of large-area high-speed land, sea and air transportation network connected to the world>
The area has one of the best transportation infrastructures in Japan; an expressway network covers the whole prefecture, a railway network extends from JR Okayama Station including Shinkansen, Mizushima Port – a specially designated port with increasing international functionality and Okayama Airport equipped with 3,000-meter runway hosting both domestic and international flights.
<Land>
The Prefecture has two expressways running east-west and one expressway connecting the Sea of Japan and the Pacific via the Seto Inland Sea. The area reachable within two hours covers Osaka, Shikoku and San-in and constitutes a huge market with population of 16.4 million.
*Travel time using expressways4 hour 28 minutes to Nagoya, 5 hour 19 minutes to Fukuoka, 2 hour to Osaka, 1 hour 40 minutes to Kobe and Yonago and 2 hours to Kochi
<Air>
Mizushima Port boasts one of Japan’s largest cargo transportation volume (5th place in 2005). It is equipped with an international container terminal and provides regular container services to three nations and one region (Korea, China, Taiwan and Vietnam).
<Sea>
Regular domestic services to Tokyo, Sapporo, Kagoshima, and Naha and regular international services to Seoul, Shanghai, Guam and Beijing/Dalian. Chartered service to Asia/Pacific region, etc.
<Railway>
Eight routes, including Shinkansen runs into Okayama Prefecture, composing a huge cross-point to/from major cities nationwide.* Travel time using Shinkansen 3 hours 16 minutes to Tokyo, 1 hour 39 minutes to Nagoya, 46 minutes to Osaka and 1 hour 36 minutes to Hakata.
Foreign company(s) operating in the industry
| Company name | Japan Australia Corporation Pty. Ltd |
|---|---|
| Industry sector | Import/sales agent for do-it-yourself tools |
| Date of entry | February 2004 |
| Motivation for selecting region |
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| Support provided by local government or JETRO |
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Services for investment in Japan
| Menu of services | Fees charged? | Content of services |
|---|---|---|
| Providing market information | ||
| Advice on market participation | No | Provides data/documents about investment climate to Okayama including physical distribution and concentration of companies |
| Support for establishing a base | ||
| Listing of potential customers and partners | No | Provides information in liaison with related organizations. |
| Listing of potential customers and partners | No | Provides information in liaison with related organizations. |
| Support for establishing a base | ||
| Providing incubation facilities or other facilities | Yes | Provides information in liaison with related organizations. |
| Providing information on procedures for investing in Japan | No | Makes referral to related organizations or provides information in liaison with such organizations |
| Providing information on permits and licensing procedures | No | Dispatch staff to related departments in the prefectural office and provide one-stop service to reduce the time required for paperwork. |
| Providing information on subsidy programs | No | Provide as much information as possible through supplying data/documents. |
Database of candidate partners
Contains as many industrial information of the Prefecture as possible. Provides search and listing ability according to the Japanese syllabary for the company data supplied by the Okayama Prefecture Industrial Promotion Foundation.
Available incentives
Established a system to subsidize the amount invested to fixed assets by manufacturers and physical distribution companies newly entering into public industrial parks or private lands.
Living environment for foreigners
| Living environment | Warm climate and comparatively fewer natural disasters including earthquakes provides comfortable and safe living environment. The area has the largest number of days with rainfall less than one millimeter in Japan. |
|---|---|
| International schools | Attending an international school in a nearby city using Shinkansen is possible. |
| Health services catering to foreigners | Okayama Prefecture Emergency Medial Information System |
| Other | Okayama Life Information (Okayama Symbiotic Multicultural Societies): five languages |
Links to Related Websites
